Poll: What’s Your Recession Reading Pleasure?

But here’s what’s got me curious. What are you reading these days? And, just as interesting to me, have your reading tastes changed since the recession began?

For me, the answer to the second question is a definite yes. I’ve always loved historical romance and have since I first began reading the genre when I was about 13. It’s my first love and, as romance readers know, first love is a powerful thing.

I also love contemporaries, romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and – yep – great paranormals, too. Lately, though, I’ve found myself much more set to lose myself in a great historical romance.

But enough about me. We want to know what you’re reading to escape from a reality that’s gotten a bit too real. And, for a special bonus question, please tell us if your reading habits have changed since the recession began.

Note: Since most of us read a variety of types of romance, you may choose more than one answer for the first question. The second, though? You’ve got to go with one.

12 Responses to Poll: What’s Your Recession Reading Pleasure?

I have been most fortunate. So far, my husband and I have not had to make any major life-style adjustments for the current economic times. Through BookMooch, I have a TBR mountain that I may never scale. If worse came to worst, I would check out books from the library; I’m already paying for them with my taxes.

Even though I voted 50/50, I don’t really think my tastes have changed as much as my pocket book. I love trade size romance and erotic novels but they are pricey so I”m not reading nearly as many as I used to. I’ve done more shopping as the Used Book Stores and Trift Stores this year, and as a result I’ve discovered some great authors from years past…..mostly historical romance novels.

I actually can’t answer the last question. The reason is that yes, my reading habits have changed, but I really can’t say if it’s due to the recession. I recently moved from a town that did a really good job stocking historical single-title romances (a la Mary Balogh’s Slightly serious or JQ) to a town where the library has scads upon scads of Harlequin categories, every line and flavor. I’m reading lots of categories these days – but is that because of the recession, or because of my new situation? Even if I decide that it’s the library, maybe the recession is still a factor, because I’m more dependent on the library than I was before – or, have I just been reading more library books lately because I haven’t already read the inventory?

So I guess what I’m saying is, it’s a great question, but I don’t think I can answer it usefully.

I love a good historical romance, but I always have. They are still my comfort reads. I have dipped into more paranormal in the last year. I have no idea why, but I don’t think it has to do with the economic climate. I have been reading more from my massive TBR pile and books I’ve owned for many years but haven’t read. I used to spend a lot more at Amazon and various bookstores. By not buying new,I’ve discovered I have many gems in the books I own that so many romance readers have talked about, but I never got around to reading them. So, in that way, my buying habits have changed, but not my reading tastes as much. Although, the paranormal thing might be a change. I don’t know….

I’m still loving the same types of stories, but I have cut back on the larger and more expensive romances/erotica (the ones that retail for $13 and up) if for no other reason than the fact that they can be difficult to resell when it’s not a keeper. Not a bad thing though since I have 400 plus books in my TBR pile, and I devour some of the Harlequin/Silhouette books every month when they’re available at the library. I’m hardly short on reading material, but I do have to push myself a bit to read a historical, and there are quite a few in my pile that came from various eBay lots.

My reading habits haven’t changed, but my buying habits have. I’m now making use of my local library, and luckily I live in a large city so our library has new romances of all kinds every week. I moved to a more expensive apartment last year, and as a result I’ve limited myself to spending only $25/month on books. I don’t want to keep most of the books I read, anyway, so the library has been a blessing.

I’ve had a period of about two months where I just felt like nothing I read really moved me. I tend to sway towards lighter, funnier fiction, but I discovered, in the wee hours of the morning, that I needed to read something…more. I just finished reading Sandra Brown’s RAINWATER, and it really touched my soul. Its not normally the kind of book I would have chosen, but I realized after I read it how much I needed a serious story that really touched the heart.

95% of the books I’ve read in the last 10 years have been historical, but in the last year, I’ve been reading more contemporary romance— especially erotic romance that I purchase as e-books over the web. I love the instant gratification of e-books. I’ve also been reading fewer novels and more short stories/novellas. I started this habit with the Harlequin Historical Undone series then added their Spice series. Now I frequent the websites of Samhain Pub. and Ellora’s Cave. Lots of good stuff there.
I don’t know if this is related to the economy but the threat of layoffs at my place of work has certainly affected my self-confidence and changed my purchasing habits.

I think we are also seeing some signs of recovery from the Economic Recession. Of course, we have no idea of how long it will take to completely recover, but some say it’s going to be longer than for the other recessions in decades. I also scanned an article yesterday that said business owners need a new set of tactics to do well during recovery.